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It's the world's best opera – if we can define that as the one best suited to the distinctive talents of a composing genius.

The role of Elvira in Bellini’s I puritani contains the most challenging mad scenes in all opera, but soprano Lisette Oropesa dazzles on the opening night of Richard Jones’ new production.

With Aigul Akhmetshina and Seokjong Baek in the title roles, there are reasons to be optimistic, but The Royal Opera’s revival of Richard Jones’ production is a mixed bag.

The second revival of Richard Jones' staging of Mussorgsky's original 1869 version of Boris Godunov once again stars the Welsh knight. 

Even without a gingerbread house, there’s enough wickedness in Richard Jones’ staging of Humperdinck’s opera for sweet tooths to savour.

Richard Jones directs a new production at Tokyo's New National Theatre which lucidly articulates the structure of Berg’s expressionist music.

Richard Jones' 2009 production returns to Glyndebourne after a long absence, but the 1940s comedy scrubs up fresh. 

Mark-Anthony Turnage's operatic adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg's tale of abuse provides rich entertainment even as it shocks.

It's not without flaws, but the latest revival of Richard Jones' beautiful production of Puccini's beloved Parisian tale has drama aplenty.

The Armenian soprano sweeps all before her in a delightfully controlled, touching performance, enhanced by a voice that would melt the stoniest of hearts. 

Martyn Brabbins conducts an excellent ENO orchestra and consistently good ensemble cast as Richard Jones delivers a wealth of narrative detail to introduce Wagner's Ring.

Lisette Oropesa leads strong vocal performances in Handel's madcap tale of love and sorcery. Richard Jones' production is visually all over the place, but in a good way.

Richard Jones' production is revived again at Covent Garden, where Juan Diego Flórez and Ailyn Pérez lead a convincing cast. 

Inspiration eludes the director as a new staging of Saint-Säens’ biblical epic falls flat but for some excellent musical performances led by outstanding mezzo Elīna Garanča. 

Richard Jones' setting is superb in its bare minimalism, but he pays great attention to all the psychological nuances in Janáček's opera. 

Breastplates are back in vogue, but comedy horses and cheap production values undermine the first chapter in English National Opera's new Ring cycle. 

A uniformly excellent ensemble enlivens the Royal Opera House's latest Bohème revival.

A pared back production is required in these Covid times: as little physical contact as possible, no chorus on stage, and tempi brisk and alert to keep the audience in the house for as short a time as possible. 

Christine Rice gives an astonishingly performance in an evening of four powerful chamber pieces.

This third revival of Richard Jones' production is thoroughly competent but struggles to rise above the routine.

The Bavarian State Opera avoids the routine in a powerfully cast revival of Richard Jones' building-site production of Lohengrin.

A title role performance full of depth from Terfel and a barnstorming comic interlude from Tomlinson provide some great moments, but much of this Boris fails to rise above the ordinary.

Christopher Purves bosses the show as Méphistophélès; Richard Jones' production is intelligent and carefully thought through but ultimately unconvincing.

A revival of Richard Jones’ production of Handel’s emotionally probing opera. 

Amanda Majeski is magnificent in the title role; Ed Gardner shows total master of Janáček's music. But that's not enough to rescue a poorly thought out Richard Jones production.

A committed cast make this  a beautifully performed ensemble piece in which the tragedy of young love cut short by untimely disease is compellingly put across.

Despite some dramatic frustrations, at least in Oslo, Jones' production is saved by some truly outstanding singing.

Oper Frankfurt's revival of Richard Jones's production of Billy Budd with a homegrown cast is a devastating combination of powerful music and searing drama.

Strauss' mix of bedroom farce, comedy of manners and bittersweet musing about aging is acted and sung superbly in this revival of Richard Jones' production.

The Royal Opera Orchestra produce a revelatory reading of Shostakovich’s eclectic score; a fine performance from Eva-Maria Westbroek and excellent acting from the whole cast light up the drama and farce.

After his affectionate treatment of La fanciulla del West for ENO and his devastating Suor Angelica for the Royal Opera, Richard Jones’ new La bohème is disappointingly bland.

Offenbach's vivid setting of ETA Hoffmann's fantastic tales gets an enjoyable outing, with Spyres, Testé and Pudova the undoubted stars of the show.

In Richard Jones' production of Don Giovanni at Theater Basel, it was the singers alone who stole the limelight.

Richard Jones' new production is original and thought-provoking, while a commendable cast soars under the capable baton of Mark Wigglesworth.

Richard Jones's production of Puccini’s Western opera La fanciulla del West is well sung, but fails to tap in to the Wild West atmosphere of the surroundings.

Robert Dean Smith replacing an ailing tenor as Lohengrin was merely adequate but the rest of the cast and the superb orchestra made the modern production of Lohengrin in Munich memorable.

Richard Jones new production of Mussorgsky's episodic epic has plenty of strengths, but is marred by unappealing designs and rushed tempi.

A blistering performance of Suor Angelica is the highlight of this strongly performed revival of Richard Jones' 2011 production.

Richard Jones creates forceful theatre by staging Ariodante as a tale of shaming and abuse. Andrea Marcon conducts an accomplished cast and the first-class Concerto Köln.

Hansel and Gretel is often treated as a children's opera, suitable for family viewing at Christmas, but as Richard Jones' production demonstrates, it is a good deal darker than that.

With ENO having been in the news for all the wrong reasons last week,  it needed Richard Jones' The Mastersingers of Nuremberg to be a great production. Lit up by a towering performance by Iain Paterson, it is.

The Met's holiday special, Hänsel und Gretel, is a treat not only for young children but for adults with its sophisticated music, excellent singing ensemble and orchestra playing, as well as its witty production.

The Bayerische Staatsoper's production of Hänsel und Gretel is successful both musically and dramatically, but don't come expecting a charming fairy tale: This eerie staging is not for the very young or the faint of heart.

Keri-Lynn Wilson produces an outstanding UK conducting debut in Richard Jones' faithful production of Puccini's Girl of the Golden West for ENO.

Royal Opera’s first rival of Anna Nicole opens to an enthusiastic student audience. Eva-Maria Westbroek dazzles, but second time round the work seems even more burned by its clumsy libretto.

Richard Jones' new production of Rodelinda for ENO has some very good singing, but suffers from a production that refuses to take the opera seriously.

During the opening night of Anna Nicole at BAM, I found myself experiencing a case of déjà vu. New York City Opera was electrifying the Howard Gilman Opera House with a work by a living composer featuring the salacious story of a female protagonist whose life was splashed across tabloids, and at one point even featuring an act of fellatio with the disjointed music carrying on in the background.

Of the various themes that make up Britten’s Gloriana, written to celebrate the coronation in 1953 and being given a rare outing at Covent Garden to mark the work’s 60th anniversary and Britten’s 100th, the most effective by far is a sort of operatic expansion of Shakespeare’s line “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”.

British director Richard Jones is well known for his bold, modern and often controversial takes on operatic repertoire. So I was very curious to see what surprising ideas he would come up with in directing Britten’s rarely performed opera Gloriana, originally composed in honour of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

For a Parisian, the accordion is the musical instrument most redolent of memories and dreams. So for Bohuslav Martinů's surrealist opera Julietta, written in Paris and infused with a discombobulating jumble of memories and dreams, Antony McDonald's sets were masterpieces: in each of three acts, the stage is dominated by a giant accordion which is more or less the size of the whole stage.